


Bad Romance

by divapilot



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-10 20:02:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12919236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/divapilot/pseuds/divapilot
Summary: Even generals have a girl back home, whether she wants to be there or not.





	Bad Romance

Armitage Hux lifted his cut crystal goblet and, over the light amber hue of the Arkanis wine (a suitable vintage although it lacked the vibrancy of wines from earlier years), he watched his wife quietly finish her meal. He placed his wine glass on the table and leaned back, assessing her. She was pretty, if not beautiful. Thin enough, dark curls that brushed her shoulders, her height a little too short for his liking but it was just as well. He hadn’t married her for her looks. Like everything else in his personal life, he was practical but he had an eye for quality and a taste for luxury. She had pedigree, and that was what counted.

As if sensing his scrutiny, his wife looked up and met his eyes. Armitage lifted his glass. “Happy anniversary, darling,” he said.

She tilted her head and a smile crooked out of the corner of her mouth. That annoying Solo grin. “Eight years of marital bliss,” she said, raising her own glass in a salute to him. Armitage frowned slightly, trying to detect sarcasm in her comment. If there had been, he decided it was insufficient to warrant an argument over. His time with his wife was short and he was determined to make the best of it.

He smiled at her, a smile that he hoped looked sincere and caring, and reached across the table. He lay his hand on the table, palm up, and waited for her to put her own hand in his. After a moment, she did. He frowned and then brushed the expression away. After eight years she should know what he wants. An open hand means you take it. He closed his thin pale fingers around hers. “I’ve a special gift for you tonight, my dear,” he said.

With her free hand she dabbed her mouth, then put the linen napkin down. She placed her free hand on her lap, smoothing the cobalt blue fabric of her dress. “How thoughtful.”

Armitage rose, still holding her hand. His wife stood up and followed him. Server droids scurried to clear the table.

The rays of the late afternoon sun slanted across the corridor as they walked back to their private quarters. His rank and his father’s service had been rewarded, and this mansion on Arkanis was the visible proof. It pleased him to walk the elegant halls again. Armitage took her hand and slipped it beneath his arm, drawing her closer to him. She looked away from the deepening blue sky and up at him. “Will you come see her?” she asked. “She’s waited for you to come home. She misses you.”

Armitage paused. “Of course.”

They turned down a side corridor, his boots clicking on the blue tiles, and came to a room. His wife disentangled herself from his arm and pressed the panel and the door slid open. They entered the nursery, where a little girl sat quietly at play with her toys under the watchful eye of a nanny droid. Armitage smothered an overwhelming surge of disgust. Toys, dolls, little holographic dancers, styluses and palettes of gaudy colors – all types of useless paraphernalia littered the child’s room. This is what happens when he lets his wife raise his child, he thought. The girl will grow weak and foolish. It was good that she would be leaving this environment soon.

The child looked up, her pale blue eyes a perfect copy of her father’s. She leapt from her chair and ran over to him. Her red-streaked brown hair was held back with a broad blue ribbon, and she wore a yellow dress with little flowers embroidered on it in the Naboo style. He made a mental note to himself send the child proper clothing. He crouched down and the child ran into his arms, and he lifted her up. “How is my little soldier today?” he asked.

She flung her arms around his neck in a most sentimental way. “Daddy! I missed you!” she said. She leaned back in his arms and placed her small hands on his face. “I missed you so much,” she repeated.

“I missed you too, Marielle,” Armitage said. The child had been named for his mother, but there was an annoying amount of his wife, and by extension his mother-in-law, in the girl, especially in the fullness of her face. But this was his daughter, and such flaws could be surgically corrected if necessary.

“Will you stay this time?” the child asked. Armitage gently put her down and the girl grabbed onto the loose folds of her mother’s blue dress. He thought for a moment and decided that four was too old to be hanging onto a mother. Marielle would have to begin training soon, he realized, if only to keep her mother from completely ruining her chances for advancement in the service of the First Order by indulging in the girl’s childish fancies.

Armitage leaned down and kissed the girl on the top of her head. “We shall see. Perhaps you would like to come visit Father on his ship? You can come onto the bridge with me.”

The girl’s eyes grew large and she turned to her mother. “Can I?” she asked.

Her mother looked down at her, her expression inscrutable. “If that’s what your father wants.”

Marielle beamed. “I drew a picture of the ship, Daddy. Look.” She ran over to her desk and retrieved a flimsi. He examined the crude drawing of a red headed man and a child. The large triangular shape they stood in front of must be the Finalizer, he surmised. She had scrawled a blue background full of yellow stars behind them. She looked up at him. “See? I made this for you. That’s you and me on your ship. Mommy says that it’s a big ship and it goes all over the galaxy.” She began to spin in little circles.

“Yes, Marielle,” he said, “Thank you. Now go to bed, little soldier.” He folded the drawing and tucked it in his belt.

The nanny droid approached. His wife let their daughter’s hand slide out of her own and the nanny droid took the girl by the hand. Armitage turned to leave. He held out his hand to his wife, but her attention was on watching the girl walk toward her bedroom. Armitage stared at her. “Breha,” he said, a little more sharply than he intended. His wife blinked and stared at his open palm, then obediently put her hand in it. As they left the nursery, he pulled the child’s drawing out of his belt and placed it on the windowsill. The maintenance droids would dispose of it. If his wife saw him do it, she chose not to say anything.

“I’m thinking it’s about time that Marielle began her education,” he said as they strolled toward the private rooms.

“She can be educated here, with us,” his wife countered quietly.

“Any child can be educated anywhere, but we are talking about my child. My child will need specialized training to fulfil her potential. I’ve made arrangements for Marielle to go to the Arkanis Academy when the next term starts.”

His wife stopped and stared at him. Her hands dropped to her side. “Armitage, she’s too young. She’s just a little –“

He cut her off. Youth was key. He had married his wife when she was barely out of her teens, too young to really have much of a choice in the matter, and Snoke had been wise to suggest the union - it had worked out most profitably for Armitage. He would explain it to her so that even she could understand. “The younger they start, the more comprehensive her education will be. Tell me, how old were those children at your uncle’s Jedi academy? Some were her age, even younger.” Armitage began walking again. “The decision is done. Your sentimental babying of her will not help her.”

She stood in her place as he walked away. “Please. I don’t want her to leave. She should be home with us.”

“You don’t have a choice. Now, let’s go.” He stopped and held out his hand for her to take.

His wife’s hands stayed at her side. He walked back to her, his eyes narrowed. “Don’t be a fool, Breha. You always knew this would happen. From the moment you agreed to marry me you knew what the arrangement would be. Any children of ours would be subject to whatever I felt was best for them.”

She looked up at him, her lip trembling but her stance firm. “You don’t get to take my child away without my consent. I am your wife and I deserve to be treated as your equal.”

He stared at her, unimpressed by her little display. “You were a peace offering,” he spat. “I married you on the request of Supreme Leader Snoke so that we could find some way to control your rebellious little family.” He snatched her hand and squeezed it, and she winced. “You are married to a general. Act like a general’s wife.”

“My mother’s a general, too,” she muttered.

Now his rage flared openly. “Your mother is a traitor.” He pushed her against the wall, his hands on her shoulders. She flinched and turned her face away from his. “You took an oath to obey me when we married. An unbreakable oath. I am ordering you to never refer to that Force witch again. Thank the gods you didn’t inherit that ability from her.” He leaned in even closer. “You would be wise to watch your words, Breha. Your brother is on my ship. It would be unfortunate if something were to happen to him. You know how recklessly impulsive he can be.”

Armitage caught his breath, his temper subsiding, then he stepped away and dropped his hands to his side. He shook his head, then straightened his black tunic. He sighed. “Darling, let’s not argue. It’s our anniversary. I have a gift for you.” He held out his hand and waited. Slowly she raised her own hand and placed it in his. He patted it, smiling. “That’s better.”

They approached their private rooms. Armitage opened the door and waited for her reaction. He had spent quite a bit of money on her present and he wanted her to be grateful. She looked around the room at all the flowers, their heady scent filling the air with their perfume. “They’re lovely,” she said. She walked to the bed and scooped up a handful of the blue petals, letting them fall through her fingers like forgotten memories.

“Blue asterias,” he said. “They’re your favorite.” He came up from behind her and gently pushed her brown curls aside, then placed a necklace around her neck. “This is a sorra diamond. It’s one of the rarest gems.” He paused. “They mine them on Torkurra.”

He waited, testing to see if she would make a comment about the notorious slave laborers of Torkurra who worked in the backbreaking heat to mine sorra diamonds. But for once, his wife wisely kept her pretty mouth closed.

Armitage smiled. He hoped tonight they would conceive a child, a boy to replace the one she lost on him years ago at the start of their marriage. To achieve this, he had taken the liberty of replacing her repressors with useless placebos. Armitage would name the child after his father. Besides, it would give his wife something to occupy her time when Marielle goes off to the Academy in a few months.

Perhaps this would be a productive visit home after all. He kissed her along the nape of her neck. His wife stayed still and quiet, his touch as soft as a spider’s against her skin. Still standing behind her, his kisses traveled up her neck and his hands crept across her hips, pulling her closer and rustling the bright blue fabric of her dress.

His words breathed into her ear. “Happy anniversary, darling.”

His wife passively accepted his advances as she continued to stare out the window at the sky, its deep blue shifting to indigo as the bright promising hues of day surrendered into the darkness of night.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes on OC. This is an AU of my AU that I wrote last year. The OC is Breha Amidala Solo, the fourth child of Han and Leia in the Legends canon. She is not Force sensitive. In the original stories listed, she falls deeply in love with a Barolian medic. In this story, they never meet.


End file.
